On the Sidelines
by DarkMousyRulezAll
Summary: Chloe Sullivan loved her job. She did, no matter how long she'd stay up buried in textbooks and papers for an unpaid practically abandoned high school newspaper. Though, somewhere deep inside of her, she felt torn from the rest of her high school world. Short Season 4 drabble, Chloe-centric. Some one-sided Chlark mentioned. Read and Review please! Rated T for some brief language.


**So...today was my high school's homecoming game, and we had a nice big tailgate and I helped sell really good homemade stuff from our Latin Club booth. I was a really good saleswoman ^^ But for some reason, I felt...strange. It being my senior year and not really fitting with the in-crowd of any particular niche. Not that I'd change anything that I have, since I _love_ my close friends and the fact that I write more than I practically live my life...but it just felt...weird. Hard to explain. But anyway, I kinda identified with Chloe for a while, and I figured, why not write a little drabble and share it with you guys. Why not. I need a Smallville-fic anyway. **

**So yeah, short and sweet. Well, short and _bitter_sweet. Review and let me know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Smallville.**

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_**On the Sidelines**_

Chloe Sullivan loved her job. She did, no matter how long she'd stay up buried in textbooks and papers for an unpaid practically abandoned high school newspaper. Even though her efforts usually went unnoticed, Miss Sullivan was in the place where she wanted to be most. Journalism was in her blood, and there would be no keeping her out of the Torch room if she was working on articles.

Though, somewhere deep inside of her, she felt torn from the rest of her high school world. Not like she wanted to wave pom-poms at every football game, but Chloe had a deep pit of longing that was always quietly eating away at her heart. For four years of her life in Smallville High, she's been the infamous Chloe Sullivan, one and only writer _(most of the time)_ for the Torch, and most ruthless high school journalist Smallville had ever known. Yet, she always felt like the largest _(or would it be smallest?) _wallflower. No one really ever _knew_ her, besides Clark and Pete, and occasionally Lana, but Pete left, and Miss Lang was a completely different can of worms that Chloe did _not_ like to deal with. No one reached out to her, and she didn't reach out to anybody. It was like she was living on the sidelines, watching her life go by and writing it down as it happens in a large universal newspaper.

Sometimes Chloe Sullivan felt like crying. Sometimes the deteriorating loneliness drowned out everything and weighed her down so much she couldn't physically move. Sometimes she wanted to scream out into the world and let out all of her pent-up emotions. Sometimes she didn't want to feel so _invisible_. But despite all of this, she would put up a front and hide behind her lopsided grin and keep people out, trying to cover the fact that she did really want to have some part of the _normal_ high school experience.

Sometimes she wished her best friend hadn't chosen to take the path of the glittering yellow brick road to high school fame. But thinking over it, she was glad that Clark ended up on the football team. It's something _he_ always wanted and something he's struggled with for his four years of awkward adolescence _(and boy did she know!). _At least, she would have more of a reason to leave her dark, stuffy newsroom to join her classmates in cheering on the Crows. Even if she was still uncomfortable as all hell outside of her natural element, at least she had someone to cheer for: Clark Kent, the one person who made Chloe Sullivan feel like she was playing the game of life, instead of sitting on the sidelines.

That flannel-loving farmboy had brought her out of her shell, and even if he still didn't see her the way she saw him, she'd be there for him, cheering from the stands. Because Chloe knew Clark would do the same. And though it didn't quite fill that deep decaying pit of isolation, it made her feel a hell of a lot better to have him around.


End file.
